Jesse Owens, American track-and-field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His four Olympic victories were a blow to Adolf Hitler’s intention to use the Games to demonstrate Aryan superiority. Learn more about Owens’s life and accomplishments in this article.
Jesse Owens, byname of James Cleveland Owens, (born September 12, 1913, Oakville, Alabama, U.S. died March 31, 1980, Phoenix, Arizona), American track-and-field athlete who set a world record in the running broad jump (also called long jump) that stood for 25 years and who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His four Olympic victories were a blow to Adolf Hitler’s intention to use the Games to demonstrate Aryan superiority. As a student in a Cleveland high school, Owens won three events at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships in Chicago. In one day, May 25, 1935, while
The significance of Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games has resonated for generations since, but what happened next shone a harsh light on the world beyond the Third Reich’s abhorrent ideology and raises questions that still need answering today
The silver medal was won by Carl Ludwig Luz Long after he finished second to Jesse Owens in the long jump at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Above: The pair on the podium.